The test they say is simple to do and can be done at home.

A problem that men encounter when assessing male pattern baldness is working out how much hair they are losing and whether the medication that they are taking is actually working. The problem is compounded by the fact that it is completely normal for both men and women to lose around 100 hairs every day from their scalp so by observing hair loss in the shower plug or on your pillow in the morning does not necessarily mean that you have a problem.

Recently Ukmedix News has learned of a group of scientists working at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who have come up with what they claim to be an extremely reliable way of actually telling whether you are losing more had than normal. The test they say is simple to do and can be done at home.

In developing their study the researchers examined 60 normally healthy men who had no visible evidence of male pattern baldness. Fifty percent of the volunteers were between the ages of twenty and 40 and the other half between the ages of 41 and 60. They were all given combs and specific instructions that they had to wash their hair with a particular type of shampoo for three mornings in a row. On the fourth, fifth and sixth mornings they were told to comb their hair forward for a one minute period over a white sheet so that they could count the amount of hairs that fell out.

The hair loss data of the volunteers was then compared with their hair loss following the exact same process six months later. Dr. Carina Wasko who headed the study said that if the hair counts stayed the same after six months the men could be sure that they were not suffering from male pattern baldness or any other type of hair loss but if the hair loss count increased this could be used as evidence of some type of alopecia.

The study which can be seen in the medical journal the Archives of Dermatology has been described as a “simple, practical and objective” method for assessing hair loss.